4-blepharoplasty with Temporal Brow Lift. Beverly Hills, CA

I was NOT going to write a review, but 3 weeks out I feel my story might bring something to the Real Self narrative.
I decided to undergo an eye lift after years of colleagues commenting on how tired I looked, being asked if I had a migraine when I rarely ever have a headache, the last straw being a german colleague yelling at me that "I had that [RS bleep] face again" with what I am sure was a neutral facial expression (yes, these were your words Daniela). I am 45yo, non-smoking female in good health, but I suspected I would not have the quick recoveries reported on Real Self because I have always been a bruiser.
I live in Europe but dislike the paternalistic and somewhat careless attitudes displayed by professionals in my country of residence, and decided to choose a board-certified oculoplastic surgeon in an geographic area where such surgeries are commonly performed, and where pressure to succeed is high. Beverly Hills naturally came first.
My upper eyelids were asymmetrically droopy, puffy and crêpy, covering the mobile portion of the lid, which made the application of make-up sort of pointless as it would smudge/run off and not be visible anyways. During the day, I would try to keep my eye brows elevated so as to look friendly, interested and awake, but I'd have to massage my forehead in the evening to ease out the muscular strain. No kidding. The lower eyelids were puffy with moderate fat bulges, but I thought what the heck, if I'm going for this I will do it all the way.
I consulted with 2 surgeons, sending a few pictures and doing 30-minute Skype consultations.
I work in the medical field, and have grown weary of over-confident surgeons. The doctor I went with was refreshing in that sense, sounding timid, but did not provide very detailed explanations for what he had to offer. I am a person that likes to get all the whys and hows. This surgeon did not perform eyebrow lifts that left his patients with high or circumflex brows, something I associate with incompetence or insecurity and that I absolutely did not want.
I landed in LA on Sept 10th 2015 and had surgery the following morning. Full payment was easily done in advance by bank transfer. I came in the morning of the surgery with my stash of meds: antibiotics, Tylenol-codeine, methylprednisolone at decreasing doses for the first 6 days, erythromycin ointment for the eyelid sutures, neomycin/polymixin B + dexamethasone ointment for the eyeball at night, another antibiotic ointment for the temple area, and 2 Valium pills which I was instructed to take upon after meeting with the surgeon. I started dozing off and do not remember feeling significant pain during the injection of local anaesthetics. The surgeon and the assistant kept me talking during the procedure, Lord knows what idiocies I said in this altered state. Discomfort arose toward the last third of the surgery, local was re-injected, quickly taking care of that.
Specifically, an upper blepharoplasty, a lower blepharoplasty with fat transposition and a pre-trichial temporal brow lift were done. I was told during the surgery that the lower eyelid fat was tucked under the periosteum, I did indeed feel a tool rasping against the bone under my eye sockets, and understood this to be a variant of the standard approach. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask the surgeon why he had chosen this approach and how that would change the outcome on my recheck appointment. During the surgery, the surgeon declared he would have to cut some skin below the lower eyelids, as the fat transposition would result in too much skin/wrinkling and I would be dissatisfied with the final results. Eight cm long curved incisions were made above each temple just before the hair line.
Postoperative instructions were pretty standard as far as I can tell from other accounts here: cold packs 10min/h for the first 48hrs followed by hot packs at the same frequency afterwards, the meds as outlined above, keeping head elevated, no showering for 48h, rest. Well, that last bit turned out to be difficult. I stayed in bed for the first 24h but got a bad case of cabin fever after that, and allowed myself to walk to the beach 2-3h every day, wearing a hat and glasses, keeping it relatively short as the wind would dry my eyes out. Reading was near impossible for the first 48hrs, and my advice would be to think of downloading Audibles on your cellphone beforehand. Boredom was the issue, but no pain the codeine could not take care of (first 24h only).
I bruised, and for a long time. As the surgeon told me I could fly out 7 days post-op, I figured I would look presentable 9-10 days afterwards. Oh no. It is 3 weeks post-op today, and I am unable to cover up the bruises. I bought concealers and correctors, to no avail. Perhaps the sub-periosteal fat transposition variant makes bruising worse? Only the knots at both extremities of the sutures along the lower eyelid were cut, and little dots are aligned at the lash line making me look like Maya the alien in Space 1999. These dots cannot be covered with make-up either. One could make up a story about the bruises, but the dots make it clear to all that surgery took place. I was planning on keeping the whole thing hush-hush, but I have to fly out to a congress in a few days, and I HATE to think about all the colleagues scrutinising my face.
A complication has arisen, and I hope the Doc can find a solution from afar. My self-diagnosis is an infected stitch. What started out about 15 days post-op with redness, inflammation and itchiness at the outer portion of the lower eyelid stitching of the right eye evolved into a fat white head, which burst about 2 days ago. Now a 3-4mm crater stands in that place, burning and sending occasional pin pricks deep into the tissues, and the whole eye is swollen. Dear God, please do not let me scar like this, my eyes was all I had going for me.
In addition, I knew the temporal scars would be difficult to deal with (my scars usually pigment forever), but I have a stubborn cowlick on the side of the less pretty of the two incisions, and a hole is present at the top part. I am considering cutting my hair to make it easier to keep the area covered for the next 6 months.
In a nutshell, one of the things I have learned from this experience are that one should plan on a whole lot more down time than what the Docs and reviews tell you. Sure you can go back to work 4 days later - if you are a consultant and work from your den.
If the bruising, swelling and presumed infection were to disappear, the general aesthetic goal would have been achieved, but we are far from that yet, hence me leaving a "not sure" note and not disclosing my surgeon's name for the moment.